Meanwhile Far Away In The Bleed
Max and the Anti-Monitor moved through the void like twin storms.
Blow after blow, exchange after exchange, faster than the eye could follow, each impact sending visible shockwaves rippling outward through the fabric of the Bleed. Max threw a punch. The Anti-Monitor caught it.
His fingers closed around Max's fist and squeezed hard.
The sound of bone compressing was audible even in the silence of the void.
Max gritted his teeth against the pain,and immediately raised his free palm directly into the Anti-Monitor's face.
The ki blast detonated point blank.
The explosion engulfed them both instantly, a violent bloom of purple and gold consuming the space around them and throwing smoke and force outward in every direction. When it cleared, Max had already put distance between them, flexing his healing hand slowly, watching the dissipating smoke with steady eyes.
The smoke cleared to reveal the Anti-Monitor stood completely unharmed.He looked at Max the way someone looks at something that has run out of options and simply hasn't accepted it yet.
"No matter what you do," he said, his voice carrying cold certainty, "the outcome that awaits you is death."
He raised his hand.
"Now perish."
Antimatter began gathering in his palm, rapidly, hungrily, the mass of it swelling and expanding, lighting up the void around them in a brilliant, sickly white that grew brighter and brighter with every passing second. The scale of it was different from before,this attack was clearly leagues stronger than his clone's.
Max brought his hands to his side.
Palms cupped. Fingers angled inward.
"Kaaa..."
The energy began forming between his hands immediatel,deep purple, crackling and condensing, pulling the space around it inward slightly as it built.
"meee..."
The Anti-Monitor's sphere was enormous now. The white light of it cast harsh shadows across Max's face, illuminating the strain already present there, the veins beginning to surface at his temples.
"haaaa"
The sphere launched as it tore through the void,distorting space around it as it rushed towards Max.
"MEEEE...HAAAAA!!"
Max roared and thrust the Kamehameha forward.
The two forces collided.
The clash was blinding.The purple Kamehameha energy grinding against antimatter, neither yielding, the collision generating cascading waves of force that rolled outward through the surrounding space in every direction. Purple lightning erupted from the point of impact, jumping and arcing wildly into the void around them, lashing across the Bleed in jagged, violent bolts.
Max dug in.
His shirt disintegrated first,the antimatter eating through it as the sphere pressed forward, closing the distance inch by inch despite everything Max was pouring into the beam. Veins bulged across his face and neck. His teeth were clenched so hard his jaw ached.
"RAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Max roared with everything he had left pushing with everything he had as the antimatter sphere detonated.
The explosion didn't bloom outward the way normal explosions did because it consumed, a sphere of annihilation expanding in every direction simultaneously and swallowing him as well as the void shook followed by silence.
The epicenter of the explosion was emptyax was no where to be seen.
Max suddenly reappeared, his breathing slightly ragged. His left eye slowly closed, the Rinnegan within it dimming before shutting completely.
His remaining eye remained locked onto the Anti-Monitor, who seemed completely unsurprised. After all, he had seen Max use this trick before.
And now he was out of eyes to save himself.
If the Anti-Monitor killed him again, it would truly be over.
Max was thinking along the same lines. Of course, he still had Thena's Sharingan, but he didn't want to use it. That meant he had to be careful now and end this as quickly as possible.
With that thought in mind, Max steadied his breathing and relaxed his posture before speaking.
"Yes, I am going to die, but on my own terms. And since I'm going to die anyway, I might as well make my death worth it. Now here I come."
Max lowered his hands to his waist, his fists clenched tightly.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaa... Haaaaaaaaaaaa..."
The Bleed began to tremble.
His hair slowly rose and thickened as crimson lightning flickered around his body.
"RAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
A rose-colored pillar of energy erupted from his body, engulfing him completely. The surrounding void shook violently as the pillar expanded further and further, its light illuminating vast stretches of the Bleed.
Then, just as suddenly, the energy collapsed inward.
When the light faded, Max stood revealed in a new form.
Rose intertwined with crimson.
Super Saiyan Rosé amplified a hundredfold by the Eighth Gate.
The sheer power radiating from him distorted the surrounding space, causing reality itself to warp around his body. For the first time, the Anti-Monitor's eyes narrowed slightly.
Max shifted one foot forward.
And in the next instant, he was gone.
The void shattered behind him as he appeared directly in front of the Anti-Monitor, his fist already pulled back.
The Anti-Monitor responded in kind, drawing back his own fist.
Then they struck.The impact was strangely muted as ripples spread outward from the point where their fists met, distorting the surrounding space like a stone dropped into a cosmic ocean.
Then came the explosion.
BOOOOOM!
The Bleed itself convulsed as a wave of destructive energy erupted in all directions. Reality bent and twisted around them while cracks spread through space, unable to withstand the force generated by their collision.
Multiple explosions followed as Max and the Anti-Monitor clashed throughout the void, creating powerful waves of energy and distortions in space.
Max blocked a punch from the Anti-Monitor and immediately countered with an uppercut that sent the cosmic tyrant flying upward at blinding speeds. Before the Anti-Monitor could recover, Max teleported behind him and landed a spinning kick across his back, sending him hurtling even farther into the distance.
The Anti-Monitor finally regained his bearings, only for his instincts to scream in warning.
Reacting instantly, he created a shield of antimatter behind his back.
A moment later, Max teleported directly behind him, a fully charged Rosé Kamehameha already gathered between his hands.
"Ha!"
The beam erupted forward at point-blank range and slammed into the antimatter shield.
BOOOOM!
The Anti-Monitor was pushed backward at incredible speed as the shield strained against the attack. Realizing it wouldn't hold, he quickly moved out of the way.
The antimatter shield shattered into countless fragments.
The Rosé Kamehameha continued onward, carving through the void and disappearing into the distance.
Taking advantage of the opening, the Anti-Monitor retaliated. He launched multiple antimatter bombs that merged together into a single gigantic sphere and sent it hurtling toward Max.
Max calmly leveled his right arm to the side in a chopping stance.
Rose-colored ki enveloped his arm, extending outward into a razor-sharp ki blade.
With a single swing, he sliced the antimatter sphere cleanly in half.
The two halves flew past him before detonating behind him in a pair of massive explosions.
As the shockwaves washed over him, Max felt a familiar problem resurface.
The Eighth Gate.
With it currently open, chakra and ki were once again being mixed together within his body. Unlike chakra, however, ki wasn't meant to be burned in this way. It resisted the process, slowly gathering within his heart.
Slowly turning him into a bomb.
He had to end this quickly.
If his chakra reserves dropped too low, the excess ki would either kill him instantly or trigger a catastrophic explosion by drawing in even more energy.
With that realization, Max raised his left hand and drove the ki blade through his own palm up to the base of his fingers.
He gritted his teeth slightly as pain shot through his hand.
Smoke rose from the wound.
Then, with his right hand, he grabbed the crackling energy leaking from the injury and sharply pulled.
The energy stretched and condensed.
A scythe materialized in his grasp, emanating a menacing rose-and-crimson aura that distorted the surrounding space.
Max lowered the weapon and pointed it directly at the Anti-Monitor.
The Anti-Monitor narrowed his eyes.
This development didn't surprise him in the slightest.
He had seen this before.
The last time, however, he had made the mistake of underestimating Max.
That was a mistake he had no intention of repeating.
Raising his left hand, the Anti-Monitor gathered a vast amount of antimatter into his palm. The energy lengthened and solidified into a massive double-edged sword glowing with brilliant white light.
For a moment, the two simply stared at one another across the void.
Then they both vanished.
End of Chapter.
Chapter 50:The Anti-Monitor's last attack
Chapter 51:Final explosion?
Chapter 52:Saddening news
You can read advanced chapters at patreon.com/darker knight